The upcoming One Piece Film Red has released Eiichiro Oda‘s character design drawings for Sunny-kun, the transformed version of the Straw Hats’ Thousand Sunny ship.
The movie’s website provides the following description for Sunny-kun:
In the setting drawing, it is depicted as an adorable figure, as if it were a child lion turned into a plush toy. Also, Sunny-kun gazes at us with an adorable expression, “Sunny! is written in a speech balloon, indicating that he can also speak.
What happened to the Thousand Sunny, and will it be able to return to its original pirate ship? One look at Sunny-kun and you will be captivated! We hope you will enjoy his lovable appearance at the movie theaters!
One Piece Film Red is set to premiere in Japan on August 6. It will be the 15th One Piece anime movie and the latest since 2019’s One Piece Stampede.
The movie is directed by Gorou Taniguchi (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;Surrection, One Piece: Taose! Kaizoku Gyanzakku) with a script from Tsutomu Kuroiwa (One Piece Film: Gold, GANTZ:O). Oda is the general producer and original story creator. Other staff include Masayuki Satou (One Piece Film Strong World character designer and animation director) as character designer and chief animation director, Hiroshi Katou (Mars Red co-art director) as art director, Sayoko Yokoyama (One Piece “WE ARE ONE” 100 volumes and 1000 episodes commemoration video) as color designer, and Ema Tsunetaka (Megalo Box 2: Nomad) as photography director.
Oda’s Shueisha-published One Piece manga began in 1997 and has 102 tankoubon volumes as of April 2021. It is serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump and published under the Jump Comics label.
The manga received its first anime adaptation in the form of the One Piece: Taose! Kaizoku Gyanzakku OVA, which was released in 1999. An anime series began in 1999 and passed the 1000th episode mark on November 21, 2021, while the first One Piece movie premiered in 2000. Production I.G produced Taose! Kaizoku Gyanzakku, while subsequent instalments were produced by Toei Animation.
One Piece has also inspired various video games, as well as a live-action Netflix series that is currently in the works.
Source: One Piece Film Red website